Welcome

Intro: How this thread got started! (you are here)
About Open Canvas (and download link!)
Tutorials
WpeS!!! >.<
Reserved (in case I think of something else)

Anyways! As you can probably tell I love this program. I am very new to digital art and have only bought my Bamboo about 6 months ago. I was unable to install the programs (photoshop, coral painter and... something else >.<) so I was happy to know of Open Canvas. Free, tiny, and simple.
Though I have played with it quite a bit I feel like I am always learning more about it and I still always ask a TON of questions:
Lovely CK was very helpful one day:

Originally Posted by CK

Yeah - I have or have tried other art programs, but OpenCanvas has stayed my favorite... I'm going to try "SAI" sometime, though, as I hear that's also good. :) OC is also far less likely to crash and eat your work. XD;
I got one of the filenames wrong anyway. >_> ".wpe" files are the OpenCanvas1.1 files where you an watch an artist work on a picture. You can save one yourself by clicking the "Export" thing...... (The ".oe3" files are OpenCanvas 3+ version files. And since you don't have that, there's not much point in me uploading any. XD; )
I looked through all my .wpe files I still had and only found two I thought you'd be able to use to learn from... both are Legend of Zelda fanart pieces. XD;
If you like this image of Link and Navi then save-as on this .wpe file.
And if you like this picture of Shiek, then here is the .wpe file.
And if you'd like more, this thread on ConceptArts is all about sharing .wpe files. :3 And the artists who hang out there are way, way better than I am, I'm betting. (Assuming everyone who posts there has an account and all...)
Anyway, just save it somewhere and then go to OpenCanvas, click "File" and "Import Event File" and it should play!

And now I have fallen in LOVE with wpes! So I decided to start a thread for oC based off the original Concept Art thread!

Now that the text wall is out of the way the FUN Stuff!

About Open Canvas.

As I said it's very tiny and free. In fact click here to download your own copy!
Now to cheat a bit I'll give you



OpenCanvas, Version 1.1: An Online Guide This is a wonderful guide... but sometimes anglefire seems to hate me... below is a backup.


OpenCanvas 1.1 Guide (OR, "It's *FREE*, so why are you using MS Paint?")


Also oC has a nifty bit that you can draw with your friends. Learn how here * I have heard you may not be able to do with the latest version of the freeware. I'm not sure on this and would appreciate it if anyone knew for sure.

Tutorials:

Got a GREAT tutorial? AWESOME! I would love for this page to grow!
To submit a tutorial post:

HEY BIRDIE I GOTS A TUTORIAL:
(tutorial name' & author/link)
info about tutorial (pro/cons) of course this is optional

In general I would like to keep this more oC themed if I could but I will never pass down a good learning experience. Though if it is one that's very Photo Shop or "other" specific maybe you can post a little about how you adapted it to oC!

I'm trying to post as many as I can to show the versatility of this wonderful program, plus we all work in different ways, hopefully they will all help you in figuring out what works best for YOU.

oC specific tutorials:
DA's oC tutorials list by by ArtistsHospital I'll try not to pull TO many duplicates off of this >.< but there are a TON of helpful ones.
pichu4850's tutorial ~ Covers the whole program. Simple, quick and with some good general drawing advice.
Pixieface tutorial #1 ~ a VERY in depth tutorial on the basics of open canvas. Not as simple as the first one, but with lots of wonderful in depth explanations and screen shots. PLUS a hotkeys list! Yay!
Pixieface tutorial #2 ~ A continuation of the first tutorial this one is on painting
karza tutorial ~ A COMPLETELY different way to ink in oC! This time WITH layers >.<.
lady-cybercat tutorial ~ By far the simplest inking tutorial. I feel that this one is great for beginners being as it isn't, well, so overwhelming as the others.

Open Canvas Tutorial :3 by *koisnake ~ Another good beginner tutorial. I'm not sure what version she uses but I know she has more then the 1.1 tools >.<
openCanvas Tutorial Thinger by ~Sakamoto ~ This one is for 4.02 (i think is what he says at the beginning). MUCH more complex but I still feel he had some good advice overall and the techniques are replicable in 1.1
Cel Shading in Open Canvas by ~cat-cat ~ 100% screen shot tutorial. I believe it's 3.03. But again I found it easy to adapt.

non oC tutorials:
PolyKarbon tutorials: ~ if you have not been to the PolyKarbon site, I suggest you spend some time checking it out. But for now I will just give a motherload of tutorials. >.<
it seems like polykarbon is temp. down so I'll let you know when it's back up again!

Luciole Loong's "Drawing Hands" ~ If you are anything like me ... you hate hands. This girl breaks it down clear and simple. Also if you scroll down on her page she has TONS of other tutorials! All equally as helpful. She also uses a range of mediums (topics on tablets to Copics!) so it's a nice broad range.

Wpe. s!

Now for the fun stuff! I really would love for these to be the main focus of the thread, seeing as they are MUCH easier to make then a whole tutorial and they are just as helpful! These are you watching the person drawing. Though a bit faster (though you can slow it down if you want). It's wonderful to see how people use the tools and there techniques!
Just so no one feels self conscious about sharing some of the worst art you've ever seen >.<


See? now you can show off.


YAY Thanks Teshia!

Originally Posted by Teshia~Lyndall

I love Open Canvas. Personally I use OC 4.5 because I thought it was worth investing in. If you download the trail version from the Portal Graphics website, then you can view event files made after oc1.1. Even once the trail expires, you can still open event files. You just can't save.

Anyway, here are some of my event files from 4.5 Click on the pic to dl.
HEY BIRDIE I GOTS ONE FOR YOU!

HEY BIRDIE I GOTS ONE FOR YOU!
{pic}
{link}
*optional comments

If you need a place to upload your work to I use Send Space. (also recommended by ck) so as long as the upload I posted works yours should to >.<
and just in case you don't quite understand CK explanation in the first post :
This is how you play a wpe.

This is how you save your own

and if these stretch your page try hitting F5 and they should shrink >.<

~k`k thank you everyone for stopping by my thread! Please contribute! otherwise this place will be no fun >.< and all my time and energy will be wasted! any case ~ I hope it's very helpful ... and I didn't make TO many spelling mistakes >.<

Reserved to be reserved! (just in case)
One more time and that should be good >.<
SO open~ish for some selective posting...
edit:
yay! everyone can post now!

Ooooo, you got me interested :3 I'm a bit busy doing school work right now, but as soon as that's finished I'll look into oC!

ummm well You did say it might be nice for our collaboration! But yeah so far no big errors or anything? I think all of my links work... *hopes it's ready*

Everything looks fine! Only the Polykarbon link doesn't work here, I get a 404 error message.

Played around with oC a bit and got this result ^^ I really like the simplicity of this program. Just haven't really figured out what this .wpe is (I don't see it in the list of extensions with which I can save stuff).

WOW I hate you and your talent!
K` I'm not sure if it will let you do it on one you have already saved. But try to re-open it and under "file" go to Export file and it should save it to a wpe. But I'm glad I inspired you to try the program.
Damn these links they all work off my bookmarks! grrr the anglefire one has been breaking to...then it works *confuzzled*

I wanna see the image you're hiding in that wpe-instruction image! Looks pretty 8D

I'll try that with the next thing I draw, I really need to be off to school now >.>;

well maybe after other people post some of there's but I don't want to totally dominate the thread >.< and I tested it you should be able to save that first one you did and save any changes as well.

Other people would come post more easily if you replaced the "don't post yet" in the title with "we have tutorials and cookies" or something :XD
I'm at school now so I can't really do anything, but I will once I get home. OpenCanvas is addictive. o_o

lol I will open in it soon, it's just I want CK's approval before I really open it up being that 99% of this is because of her. But I'm glad you like it >.<

hello darl XD..omg ;-; oc is totally not working for me after i installed my 2nd screen. my tablet doesn't work with it anymore =/~ hence i totally ain't using it at all XD;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; T_T so sorry i can't participate much

oh no! that's not good your tablet not responding at all? I actually had that problem with gimp... what tablet is it?

Ok, this is a very cool thread! I like this program... I am so not good with arts, but I love to doodle, and pretend I'm good, and I was looking for a simple program like this. I have PSPX2, but I mainly use that for photo's. I bet this program and PSP both used in an art will be awesome! Anywho, I'm gonna go check out some of those tuts and putz around more with this a bit later... tile now here's a doodle I did using this.(I told you I'm no good at arts!)

[IMG]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q150/Enchanted191/Art/Things%20I%20Made/2008-11-22-1.jpg[/IMG]

oh well thank you!! I'm so glad you like it >.< I was hoping this thread would help and inspire!
I do like oC's simplicity. I get a little lost with all the different things of PS and I think oC makes me focus more on actually drawing well rather then just relying on a program.

Aww he's cute! I like the smile... looks like he's up to something...lol I started out as a doodler to but then I started seeing stuff and going I bet I could do that and just gradually worked up. I bet there are still people out there who think MY stuff is a doodle... even if they take me forever.....

Thanks Bound! I'm hoping that I'll get more inspiration soon to putz in the program... I am kinda usinging all my creativity on an essay I'm writing...

No problem! I try. and I know how draining school can be >.<

I love Open Canvas. Personally I use OC 4.5 because I thought it was worth investing in. If you download the trail version from the Portal Graphics website, then you can view event files made after oc1.1. Even once the trail expires, you can still open event files. You just can't save.

Anyway, here are some of my event files from 4.5 Click on the pic to dl.
HEY BIRDIE I GOTS ONE FOR YOU!

Really? can you use the whole program and just not save? How big is it ... my computer hasn't much space ... I would like to see those though they are all really cute. I really like the pink hair >.<

I LOVE open canvas' variety of brushes/pens. I haven't tried exporting an event file though...hm.. maybe I should try it in the future.

I think Open Canvas and SAI are the two best free art programs for beginners due to its simplistic layout but effective tools.

You should! It's a lot of fun to watch speed painting! Plus I'll watch myself after I'm done drawing a portion and I think it really helps me >.< I can see where I went wrong lol
I haven't heard much about SAI how large of a program is it?

I dont know what you mean by large,
however sai is a very good program (not free anymore though but there is a trial) but it is good for creating very very smooth lines and colors. (:
sorry for butting in but yeah XD i am a sai fanatic! i used to think opencanvas was very smooth and blendy.. that was before i used sai
while its not a free program anymore because it has been released an official version, its very cheap compared to most art programs at only fifty usd (;